God Mode Podcast

God Mode Pod

Every week, Rik, Ben & Luca break down the biggest AI stories. The drama, the launches, the "who just got disrupted" moments, through three lenses: marketing, building, and macro vision. For solopreneurs, indie hackers, AI enthusiasts, and idea people becoming founders. New episode every Saturday.

  1. 3d ago

    EP20: Fable 5 Just Shipped, and Anthropic Has a Bigger Problem

    Fable 5 just shipped, and Claude Sonnet 5 turned out more expensive than Opus 4.8. Then Anthropic told the US government that Alibaba ran the largest known AI model theft on record — 28.8 million exchanges through nearly 25,000 fraudulent accounts. Episode 20 of God Mode Pod. Rik, Ben, and Luca break down what's actually usable this week versus marketing hype: Fable 5's real coding limitations (including a $321 session that got silently routed to Opus 4.8), why Cursor, Coinbase, Shopify, and Airbnb are all quietly running Chinese AI models now, the chip war heating up (OpenAI's own custom chip, two 22-year-olds building GPUs 10x faster than NVIDIA, Anthropic reportedly in talks with Samsung), and OpenAI proposing to hand the Trump administration a 5% stake in the company. We close on OpenClaw and Cursor both shipping mobile coding agent apps on the same day — proof that coding from your phone isn't a thought experiment anymore. Timestamps: 00:00 Cold open 01:31 NYC heatwave, Bansko cold plunge, and the AI meetup layoffs everyone's noticing 06:49 Fable 5 first impressions 10:24 The $321 coding session Fable quietly routed to Opus 13:02 Luca ships a product on Codex + Vercel + Supabase, drops Replit for good 14:48 Claude Sonnet 5: more agentic, somehow more expensive 19:53 The US government starts gatekeeping AI model releases 21:14 Anthropic accuses Alibaba of the largest AI distillation attack on record 22:39 Why Cursor, Coinbase, Shopify, and Airbnb are quietly on Chinese models now 24:53 OpenAI's own chip, and the 22-year-olds building GPUs faster than NVIDIA 35:11 OpenAI offers the US government a 5% stake in the company 41:32 Why your coding agent might leave your laptop within 6 months 46:40 OpenClaw and Cursor both ship mobile agent apps on the same day 50:40 Meta burns $221M a month on AI tokens 53:58 X ships an MCP server for real-time data access 59:11 Content of the week, and closing out episode 20 Hosts: Rik (x.com/rikventure), Ben Broch (x.com/brochchain), Luca Arrigo (x.com/LucaArrigo_) Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUhKe2X1RW-kLTDigvkMz4w Newsletter: https://godmodepod.substack.com/ New episode every Saturday.

    1h 2m

  2. Jun 26

    EP19: Claude joins Slack, SpaceX unwinds & Fable 5 returns

    Claude edited Ben's entire video from an hour of raw footage: tagging clips, writing the script, cutting his retakes, rendering it. Then Claude showed up in Slack as a teammate. Three AI builders break down the news that actually ships this week. Rik, Ben and Luca on AI video editing crossing a line, Claude landing inside Slack as an agent you can tag, and the markets testing how much of the AI hype is real. IN THIS EPISODE: • Ben hands Claude an hour of raw clips and it tags, scripts, cuts his retakes, builds motion graphics in code, and renders the whole reel • The real bill: ~2M output tokens, 123 messages, 5 drafts, 40 minutes per render • Claude Tag: Claude joins Slack as the "11th employee" with two years of context, and the lock-in nobody's pricing in • Have the LLMs plateaued? The Gartner hype cycle and why the next leap is the application layer • SpaceX unwinds ~$1T, the pension-fund "rubbish and FUD" smackdown, and why Europe has no AI winners • Fable 5's return odds jump 15% to 60%, Zuckerberg's prediction-market app, and why Ben thinks ElevenLabs gets acquired before EP30 CHAPTERS: 00:00 Intro — Luca's 27-hour drive from Malta 01:44 Ben let Claude edit his Vietnam reel 07:22 The cost: 2M tokens, 5 drafts, 40-min renders 09:54 "Tell CapCut what you filmed today" 13:30 Create or connect (Rik's build filter) 15:14 Claude Tag — Claude joins Slack 19:49 The lock-in: renting your memory from Anthropic 21:08 Google vs Microsoft stacks + the hype cycle 23:46 Have the LLMs hit a plateau? 28:01 SpaceX IPO unwinds 31:03 "That's rubbish and FUD" — pension funds 35:54 Europe has no AI winners 38:19 Mistral is a tragedy 39:18 Europe's heatwave: bottle caps & no AC 41:34 Fable 5 is coming back (15% to 60%) 43:50 Zuckerberg's prediction-market app 48:13 ElevenLabs — prediction of the week 54:13 Outro MENTIONED: Claude, Claude Code, Opus, Fable 5 (Anthropic), Remotion, CapCut, Roll (by Alfie), Slack, Salesforce, OpenAI, SpaceX, Mistral, FluidStack, Meta, Llama, Scale AI, Gemini, Grok, Karpathy, Polymarket, Kalshi, Cursor, ElevenLabs, Nano Banana Pro. HOSTS: Rik — https://x.com/rikventure Ben Broch — https://x.com/brochchain Luca Arrigo — https://x.com/LucaArrigo_ WATCH THE FULL EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@godmodepod MORE: Substack: https://godmodepod.substack.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/godmodepod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@godmodepod New episode every Saturday. Follow the show so the next one lands in your feed.

    56 min

  3. Jun 20

    EP18: Midjourney's MRI-Killer, SpaceX Buys Cursor & Claude Fable Vanishes

    Midjourney built a full-body scanner it says beats an MRI, the US government pulled Claude Fable offline worldwide, and SpaceX bought Cursor in all-stock. Three builders break down the biggest AI news of the week. Rik, Ben and Luca read the AI news the way people who actually ship things read it. This week: why the most powerful model on Earth disappeared, whether Anthropic's own fear-marketing built the trap, how a bootstrapped image company walked into medical imaging, and why your next iPhone is worth more per byte than a GPU. In this episode: - Why Claude Fable got suspended worldwide after three days, and the "Anthropic stabbed itself in the back" theory - Luca's WWII cryptography parallel that explains every AI export control happening right now - SpaceX buying Cursor, and whether Elon's market cap becomes an acquisition machine - The data-center game behind the SpaceX IPO, and why Anthropic leases all of its compute - Midjourney's 60-second water-tank body scanner: pivot of the year or hype video? - iPhone 18 Pro at $1,299 and the AI memory shortage - The YC stalker bot, and why distribution is the only moat left Chapters: 00:00 Cold open: Midjourney goes medical? 01:02 Check-ins: NYC, the Knicks and Gozo 03:19 Claude Fable suspended worldwide 06:29 Guardrails, jailbreaks and Dario's safety pitch 10:11 Did Anthropic build its own trap? Plus OpenRouter Fusion API 14:22 Luca's WWII cryptography parallel 17:23 One model vs four: OpenAI vs Anthropic 19:20 OpenRouter, GLM 5.2 and open source catching up 21:45 Token-maxing and compounding costs 23:47 SpaceX acquires Cursor: the shopping spree 25:19 The data-center game and leasing compute 28:06 What does Elon buy next? Tesla, chips, space 32:25 The Warren wealth-tax tweet, fact-checked 34:00 Starlink x Qatar Airways and the airline question 35:45 SBF corner: $200k to $3B 36:00 Midjourney's scanner: pivot of the year 40:58 Real breakthrough or hype video? 44:16 iPhone 18 Pro at $1,299 and the memory shortage 47:42 Meme of the week: the YC stalker bot 54:23 Wrap-up Hosts: Rik — x.com/rikventure Ben Broch — x.com/brochchain Luca Arrigo — x.com/LucaArrigo_ Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@godmodepod Read the newsletter: https://godmodepod.substack.com/ New episode every Saturday. Follow the show so you never miss a drop.

    54 min

  4. Jun 19

    EP17: The SpaceX IPO Thesis Just Flipped + Anthropic Passed OpenAI (First Time IRL, w/ Reuben Ferrante)

    The SpaceX IPO thesis just flipped: one Google deal added ~$11B/year, Anthropic passed OpenAI on revenue, and Mythos is coming. We break down SpaceX, Claude vs Codex, and data centers in space — the first-ever God Mode Pod recorded in real life, from a villa in Malta with guest Reuben Ferrante (Vuci.ai). No agenda. No script. Three builders who actually ship, arguing about where AI and the markets go next. Recorded Tuesday 10 June 2026, published a week later. Timeline note: when we recorded, the SpaceX IPO hadn't happened yet — it priced on 12 June, 2 days after this conversation. So we call the thesis flip BEFORE the IPO, and this goes live ~5 days after it. That's why we talk about the IPO as "coming." IN THIS EPISODE: - The one Google deal that flipped the SpaceX bear case (~$11B/year) - How you'd even justify a $2 trillion SpaceX valuation - The "AI circle jerk": Google, Anthropic & SpaceX funding each other - Anthropic passing OpenAI, the Anthropic IPO + Mythos hype - Why builders are quietly switching from Claude to Codex - Data centers in space (the wiring is lasers) - $300/mo Replit, $200/day Lovable, and shipping the "retard maxing" way CHAPTERS: 00:00 Cold open: coding an app is the new starting a podcast 00:35 First-ever IRL episode + God Mode merch 01:00 Meet Ruben: Vucci.ai, an info layer for podcasts 02:30 Why we rented a villa (Base Camp) 05:00 Ben's heading back to New York 06:00 SpaceX IPO: the $11B Google deal that flips the thesis 07:30 Justifying a $2 trillion valuation 12:00 The AI "circle jerk": Google, Anthropic & SpaceX 13:30 Starlink, free dishes & a whole-planet TAM 15:00 Elon's GPU bet: paying off Colossus in a year 18:00 Data centers in space (the wiring is lasers) 22:00 "Retard maxing": just do it 23:30 Mythos hype vs reality & the Anthropic IPO 25:30 Why builders are switching to Codex 29:00 Ruben on building on top of LLMs 30:00 Claude thinks too much (/retardmax) 32:00 $300 Replit, Lovable & Paperclip 35:00 How Vucci indexes the whole podcast 38:00 Andrew the Paperclip intern + DNA on Claude Code 44:00 China, compute & the real moat 45:30 The new race: speed over quality 48:00 No agenda: sponsors, Cursor & Base Camp 2.0 50:00 30-minute prompts vs just shipping 54:00 Touch grass: closing thoughts MENTIONED: SpaceX IPO, Starlink, Colossus, Elon Musk, Anthropic, OpenAI, Claude, Claude Code, Codex, GPT 5.5, "Mythos", Replit, Lovable, Cursor, Paperclip, Fiverr. Guest: Ruben Ferrante, Vucci.ai. Base Camp: basecampgoesall.com WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@godmodepod MORE GOD MODE POD: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-mode-podcast/id1883959580 Substack: https://godmodepod.substack.com/ THE HOSTS: Rik: https://x.com/rikventure Ben: https://x.com/brochchain Luca: https://x.com/LucaArrigo_ New episodes every Saturday.

    56 min

  5. Jun 4

    EP16: Nobody's seen AI UGC work, world models & AI agents go desktop

    Four months in, all three of us accidentally wore white shirts — then spent an hour arguing about whether AI actually works. Icon.com is back: the founder sold Skio for $105M, spent $12M on the domain, hit $5M ARR in 30 days, went dark — and relaunched by walking back "AI ad maker" to "human ad maker." We use it to ask the real question: has anyone actually seen AI UGC work? Then a full media-buying playbook ($1 vs $30 CPM, Facebook pixel seasoning), Fei-Fei Li's world models (what comes after the LLM), the AI bubble and the fiber analogy, Nous Research's Hermes desktop AI agent, a blind game guessing 5 AI coding IDEs that all look the same, and AI-slop design. In this episode: • Icon.com's relaunch and the AI-UGC walk-back • Why human UGC still beats AI UGC — and the $1 vs $30 CPM math • Facebook pixel, account seasoning & being TikTok-famous to lower ad costs • Fei-Fei Li's world models: renderers, simulators, planners • Opus 4.8 does 80% of desk work — robots are the hard part • Is the AI bubble about to pop? The fiber overinvestment analogy • Nous Research's Hermes desktop app & the IDEs that all look the same • AI-slop design and writing a book trilogy with AI Chapters: 00:00 Cold open — the accidental white-shirt gang 01:34 "DNA is just code" — Luca's pharma → tech crossover 02:53 Icon.com is back — the $12M domain comeback 07:00 Has anyone actually seen AI UGC work? 15:44 UGC economics — $1 vs $30 CPM 21:18 Facebook pixel, seasoning accounts & Meta's AI targeting 23:52 Fei-Fei Li's world models — what comes after the LLM 28:56 AI philosophers: Machiavelli vs Marcus Aurelius 31:07 Open-sourced voice, 110ms latency & the freemium model 35:43 Is the AI bubble about to pop? Uber, IPOs & the fiber analogy 38:53 Nous Research Hermes — agents move to the desktop 44:59 The IDE game — "they all look the same dude" 47:23 AI slop design & the "Signs of AI Writing" checklist 51:52 Writing books with AI — Luca's trilogy 54:28 Outro — see you in Malta Hosts: Rik — x.com/rikventure Ben Broch — x.com/brochchain Luca Arrigo — x.com/LucaArrigo_ Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUhKe2X1RW-kLTDigvkMz4w Newsletter → https://godmodepod.substack.com/ Follow the show for a new episode every Saturday.

    53 min

  6. May 29

    Claude Opus 4.8, browser in Codex, tokenmaxxing, and the upcoming AI IPO bear case nobody wants to hear

    Claude Opus 4.8 just dropped, Anthropic is renting SpaceX GPUs at $8/hour, and SpaceX filed toward the biggest IPO in history. Plus token maxing, agentic onboarding, and analyzing your own DNA with AI. Episode 15 of God Mode Pod with Rik, Ben and Luca. We hit one million views — then spent the week questioning everything: is Opus 4.8 a real release or PR for the next raise, why "token maxing" is becoming a vanity metric, which model you should actually run for which task, and how agentic onboarding changes how every app ships. Then a full SpaceX IPO breakdown: the $8/hour Anthropic GPU deal, a TAM bigger than China, the East India Company parallel, and why the bear case might be stronger than the Elon FOMO. We close with Blue Origin going boom, Content of the Week (YC Paper Club, Dan Shipper, Lenny's pod), and a Science Corner on analyzing your own DNA with AI. Nothing here is financial or medical advice. CHAPTERS 00:00 We hit 1 million views 00:35 Intro — Luca's 24 hours in Vienna & the Malta meetup 02:30 Claude Opus 4.8: real release or PR for the raise? 06:00 Token maxing: burn everything vs return-on-token-spend 14:30 Which model for which task — the subscription stack 22:00 The browser inside Codex & agentic onboarding 30:00 Have GPU prices peaked? The $8/hr Anthropic–SpaceX math 36:00 SpaceX IPO deep dive — the bear case 54:00 Quickfire: Pieter Levels vs Google Maps & the $500M Amazon bill 1:00:00 Blue Origin goes boom 1:02:00 Content of the Week — YC Paper Club, Dan Shipper, Lenny's pod 1:08:00 Science Corner — analyzing your own DNA with AI 1:16:00 Outro HOSTS Rik — x.com/rikventure Ben Broch — x.com/brochchain Luca Arrigo — x.com/LucaArrigo_ Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@godmodepod Newsletter: https://godmodepod.substack.com/ New episodes every Saturday.

    1h 27m

  7. May 22

    SpaceX's $2T IPO, Karpathy Joins Anthropic & the SaaSpocalypse — ft. Dr Dan | EP14

    SpaceX filed the biggest IPO in history. Andrej Karpathy left OpenAI for Anthropic. And the AI coding wars got brutal: Cursor vs Codex vs Claude Code, the SaaSpocalypse, plus a full Ozempic breakdown. Episode 14 with guest Dr Dan (ex-Google, now a master vibe coder building OmniHarness.dev). Rik, Ben and Dan go deep on the $1.75 trillion SpaceX IPO and the plan to acquire Cursor, why Karpathy joining Anthropic flipped the script, whether B2B SaaS is already a one-click clone, and the real economics behind every AI coding subscription. Then a full breakdown of retatrutide, semaglutide and the peptide wave: why Ozempic is $20 from China and $400 everywhere else. Nothing here is financial or medical advice. CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open + who's on the show (Dr Dan, ex-Google) 02:50 SpaceX files the biggest IPO in history ($1.75T) 05:00 Data centers in space & Elon's master narrative 09:45 SpaceX wants Cursor: does Cursor have a moat? 14:00 Codex built an app in 7 hours while he slept 17:00 He fired 18 people & cloned a $34k SaaS from a call 19:00 Does Google copy your app? (Theo) 20:00 OpenAI's $2M-per-YC-startup playbook 25:30 Memory is the real AI lock-in 27:30 Karpathy joins Anthropic: is it "all hype"? 31:00 You don't need frontier models (and the subsidy game) 38:30 Meta layoffs & the fast-fashion software era 40:00 The SaaSpocalypse: every company becomes a software company 43:30 The counter: mom-and-pops won't vibe code 48:00 Inside China: a "side hustle" is a 40-person factory 51:30 Retatrutide & the Pokémon evolution of Ozempic 1:00:30 Why Ozempic is $20 from China (the loophole) 1:02:00 Are peptides just placebo? + the washing-machine take 1:05:30 Outro HOSTS Rik — x.com/rikventure Ben Broch — x.com/brochchain Guest: Dr Dan — OmniHarness.dev Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@godmodepod Newsletter: https://godmodepod.substack.com/ New episodes every Saturday.

    1h 7m

  8. May 16

    Anthropic won the AI race, OpenAI gives Codex for free, xAI Grok Build & Claude cancel culture | GMP EP13

    Anthropic beat OpenAI on business adoption, xAI launched Grok Build, and Rik cancelled his $100 Claude plan on air. The AI news that actually matters for vibe coders, AI builders and indie hackers — God Mode Pod EP13, with Rik, Ben and guest Matt. In this episode: - Why Rik cancelled his $100 Claude Max plan and split the spend four ways - Ben reframes the viral "AI bubble" chart — one coder burns 100x the tokens of a casual ChatGPT user - Anthropic beats OpenAI on business adoption for the first time - The /goals feature: Codex sold 200 items in 4 days from a single instruction - HTML is the new Markdown — Rik's sold, Matt's skeptical - Anthropic's June 15 credit change and the $7,500-vs-$200 lock-in - Grok Build: xAI finally enters the coding-agent race - Matt's "don't check" tip that speeds up Codex and Claude Code Chapters: 00:00 Cold open 00:35 Three vibe coders, one podcast (Matt joins) 01:30 Is AI video editing finally close? 03:50 The AI super cycle + the conglomerate called Elon 08:00 Inside Amazon's robot warehouses 09:30 The AI echo chamber: the one red dot 14:00 AI therapists, the sleeper use case 18:30 Anthropic beats OpenAI on business adoption 21:00 Cursor vs Claude Code: the harness wars 29:35 Why Rik cancelled his $100 Claude plan 33:30 HTML is the new Markdown 40:30 /goals: agents that don't stop 49:30 Anthropic's credit clampdown + the monopoly question 55:30 Grok Build: xAI enters the ring 01:02:00 Voice cloning gets weird 01:04:30 Notion opens up + Peter Levels' cheap stack 01:19:30 Who builds the AI video editor? 01:25:30 Google Book, space data centers & Clicky 01:33:30 The China trip + Elon meme mode 01:37:00 Outro God Mode Pod — three builders breaking down the AI news that matters, every Saturday. Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@godmodepod Newsletter: https://godmodepod.substack.com/ Hosts: Rik — x.com/rikventure Ben Broch — x.com/brochchain Guest: Matt -- x.com/MattPenny99

    1h 38m
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About

Every week, Rik, Ben & Luca break down the biggest AI stories. The drama, the launches, the "who just got disrupted" moments, through three lenses: marketing, building, and macro vision. For solopreneurs, indie hackers, AI enthusiasts, and idea people becoming founders. New episode every Saturday.

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  • Creator
    God Mode Pod
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    20
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © God Mode Pod